OTTAWA — Immigration Minister Jason Kenney said Wednesday he has no reason to apologize for not spending $500,000 of the $5 million committed to honour victims of anti-Chinese laws in Canada from 1885 to 1947.

The federal government has been criticized for not spending the full amount pledged as part of a broader plan to compensate payers of the Chinese “head tax” and recognize other immigrant groups targeted by discriminatory policies.

“I think the whole program has been a huge success,” Kenney said in an interview. “I haven’t heard any complaints about this.”

Kenney’s position was backed by Vancouver filmmaker Wesley Lowe, chairman of the advisory committee set up by the federal government to distribute the money.

“I think most of us are really happy with all of the work that’s been put into (the projects),” Lowe said. “It would have been nice (to spend the full $5 million) but I’m not complaining.”

Advisory committee member Susan Eng of Toronto said Wednesday that the government should have come up with a way to spend the full amount committed.

So did University of B.C. historian Henry Yu, one of the program recipients. Yu said the government should have extended the program to ensure all the money was spent.

He said recipients were too rushed, and he argued that $5 million for commemorative projects, like films, a radio series and museum exhibits, and the $15.7 million in direct redress to people who paid the head tax (or surviving spouses), was a fraction of the head paid during an era of intense anti-Chinese prejudice, especially on the West Coast.

Yu cited calculations suggesting the total amount of head taxes paid between 1885 and 1923 – the year Canada imposed an outright ban on Chinese immigration that lasted until shortly after the Second World War — was worth $1.5 billion in today’s dollars.

“You add up every dollar that has been spent on redress, it’s a fraction” of the amount paid by poor Chinese, who often had to pay an entire year’s wages to come to Canada, Yu said.

“Bridges were built, roads were built, a lot of the infrastructure in B.C., which received half of the funding (from Ottawa-imposed head taxes).”

Liberal MP John McCallum also criticized Kenney for not spending the full amount. McCallum said Kenney took political credit for the initiative which was an important plank in the Conservatives’ successful 2006 election campaign.

“It’s disingenuous to proudly announce the program without telling them a half-million dollars was taken away,” he said. “I think having promised a certain amount of money and having gotten credit for it, he should deliver on that amount of money.”

Olivia Chow, a Toronto-area NDP MP, also criticized Kenney.

“Many Chinese head tax payers died waiting for justice and their sons and daughters want acknowledgment of their suffering. $500,000 would help give a symbolic compensation of their pain caused by enforced and cruel separation from their parents.”

Kenney said the entire $5 million was committed but a number of projects came under budget, “which I think is a good thing,” generating a $150,000 surplus.

A further $350,000 wasn’t spent when one prominent group, the Chinese Canadian National Council for Equality, failed to produce documentation to support its plans.

Kenney said the program, which officially winds down on March 31, has already ended and there is no possibility of spending the money.

“We’ve shut down the program, there are no officials left to administer it,” Kenney said. “I think we acted in good faith.”

In total, the government committed $13.5 million for 68 community projects, roughly half involving Chinese Canadians. The rest were directed at projects focused on historical events marking discrimination against other groups such as Italian-Canadians, Jewish-Canadians, and Indo-Canadians.

In addition, the government made payments of $20,000 each to 785 individuals, either head tax payers or surviving spouses, a total of $15.7 million.

Poneil@postmedia.com

Twitter.com/poneilinottawa

Read my blog, Letter from Ottawa, at vancouversun.com/oneil

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